With a weekend free from yacht obligations, I decide to explore the Seattle food scene. First stop: Uwajimaya – the massive urban mecca in downtown Seattle (directly behind Safeco Field) paying homage to the large Asian population of the Pacific Northwest. This emporium of Asian culinary delights takes up an entire city block and houses a food court, Hong Kong style bakery, book store and cook shop and in true Japanese fashion everything is clean and meticulously organized.
The profusion of foreign ingredients is like a sedative to my soul. I cross my arms over the hand rest of the shopping cart, rest my head in the crook of my elbow and for well over an hour, I slowly razor-back my way up and down every isle – just taking it all in - shelves of ingredients spanning the Asian continent from Thailand to India, China and Japan.
I pass the Great Wall of Miso:
Shiny glass jars of Umeboshi plums and every type of pickle imaginable and in a panorama of color:
Shelves of fresh noodles:
An abundance of sea creatures swimming in a sea of ice – oysters, razor clams, snapper, mahi-mahi and the first copper river salmon of the season:
The produce too is just as spectacular; a basketball court size area with mountains of quince, wild ramps, Japanese parsley, fresh shiso leaves, kefir lime leaves, taro leaves (the same veggie I fell in love with in the Caribbean, only there it is known as “callaloo”), melons and pumpkins in every shape, size and color. This is surely the definition of food-porn!
I know that if I give into my urge to buy all sorts of mystery ingredients, I could easily slide down the slippery slope where too much of a good things is sometimes just too much. So, I leave empty handed but for a pack of dark chocolate poki sticks, or rather, half a pack of dark chocolate poki sticks. This is definitely a first…
At the crew house everyone is sitting around talking about having a barbeque. Perfect, I know where to shop! And within a few minutes of arriving home, I’ve got four people in the car with me and we’re on the highway heading back to Uwajimaya…
Posts
1 comment:
I was only there once but spent half an afternoon in that market, between the market itself, the bookstore and the food court. If I lived there I'd be there every week!
Post a Comment